Rangers Are Shut Out in Game 7 as Lightning Reach Finals

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The Lightning’s Valtteri Filppula, left, fought for position as a shot by Alex Killorn, not shown, trickled under Henrik Lundqvist, breaking a scoreless tie in the third period.CreditCreditJason Szenes for The New York Times

By Tim Rohan

May 29, 2015

When Alex Killorn spun away from the boards and darted toward the slot, Henrik Lundqvist looked ready, crouching in the net, his glove up, his stick out.

Lundqvist had made 1,751 saves this season until that moment. Some had truly tested the limits of his will, his body. His neck guard was scuffed. His pants and leg pads were coated with black puck marks. The colors of his gloves were running from his sweat. He had essentially carried the Rangers to this point, to the third period of a scoreless Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals on Friday night.

Killorn had one Ranger trailing him and four bodies between him and Lundqvist, but from about 18 feet away, he decided to backhand the puck toward the net. Lundqvist dropped low and squeezed his pads, but the puck slipped through his legs and trickled into the net 1 minute 54 seconds into the period.

After Ondrej Palat added a goal at the 11:17 mark, the Rangers were desperate but had few open shooting lanes in front of goaltender Ben Bishop. The Madison Square Garden crowd, once raucous, grew silent, as if thousands of people dressed in blue were sitting through a funeral.

Lundqvist was pulled with more than three minutes remaining, but Bishop repelled the attack of six Rangers skaters.

The Lightning went on to a 2-0 victory and will play in the Stanley Cup finals for the first time since 2004, against the Anaheim Ducks or the Chicago Blackhawks.

Afterward, Lundqvist sat at his locker, still wearing his leg pads, his face buried in his hands. He stayed and spoke to the news media until he was the last one in the room, when Rangers staff members were packing up the players’ belongings in large duffel bags.

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The Rangers lost a Game 7 for the first time in their last seven tries. Lightning goalie Ben Bishop stopped all 22 shots he faced.CreditChang W. Lee/The New York Times

“I never saw it until it was too late,” Lundqvist said of Killorn’s goal.

Bishop was tested fewer times than Lundqvist, but he was perfect, making 22 saves as he recorded his second straight 2-0 win at the Garden. He also blanked the Detroit Red Wings, 2-0, in Game 7 in the first round.

It was the Rangers’ first loss in a Game 7 after six straight wins, and their elimination record since the 2011-12 season is now 15-4.

The series had been so chaotic that to call it unpredictable would not do it justice. Momentum died from period to period, let alone game to game. Both teams had alternated wins over the last four games. The road team had won twice as often as the home team. Neither the coaches nor the players had an explanation.

At times during the series, including Friday, Bishop looked as if he were playing on roller skates. He often drifted to the top of the crease and ended on the ground, scrambling frantically. Rebounds bounced off him every which way.

But all postseason, the Rangers’ top scorers, Rick Nash and Martin St. Louis, did not produce as expected. On Friday, Chris Kreider and Derek Stepan went quiet, too, and the team desperately missed Mats Zuccarello, who was out with a suspected concussion sustained against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

“We didn’t work our shot lanes as much as we could have,” Nash said. “I’m pretty upset. In a career, you don’t get too many opportunities to play on a team like this and get that opportunity to win a championship.”

Predictably, both teams played a tight, physical game. Whoever had the puck became an instant target. Players climbed over one another to gain control of the puck. They could barely skate three strides without taking a vicious hit. When Valtteri Filppula of the Lightning had the puck in the slot and appeared open for a moment, two Rangers converged, sending him spinning and his stick flying.

The first period featured 30 hits alone. Over all, the teams combined for 54 hits.

Both teams had reasons to be weary. This was the Rangers’ 76th playoff game in the last four years, the most in the N.H.L. They had essentially played another regular season.

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Tampa Bay’s Alex Killorn checking Dan Boyle during the first period. Early in the third, Killorn scored the game’s first goal.CreditJason Szenes for The New York Times

Also, a few Lightning players had recently been dealing with the flu. Braydon Coburn, the only player with a confirmed case, vomited on the bench during Game 5. Then, curiously, Tyler Johnson and Palat missed the morning skate before a Game 6 loss.

The Lightning looked well enough Friday, but the Rangers’ chances looked more promising early, if only because Bishop looked as if he were playing on roller skates. He often drifted to the top of the crease and ended on the ground, scrambling frantically. Rebounds bounced off him in every direction.

The crowd mockingly chanted, “Bish-op, Bish-op.”

The Rangers, having won so many of these elimination games in recent years, had reason to be confident. Coach Alain Vigneault ran their last practice Thursday crisply and efficiently. The players sounded relaxed and said all the right things afterward. Lundqvist looked as if he were talking to himself, he was so focused, putting away his equipment and arranging everything in his locker just so.

Lundqvist found comfort in his routine, and no one would dare interrupt him. He had won his last six Game 7s, with a 0.81 goals-against average and a .973 save percentage.

As the third period started, the game remained scoreless. The Rangers had perhaps missed their best chances, squandering two power plays, not getting to Bishop.

Then Killorn sprinted up the ice, and Lundqvist let a soft goal slip between his legs. About 10 minutes later, the Lightning’s speed created an odd-man rush. Johnson made a heady pass to Palat, who had enough time and space to gather himself and fire a wrist shot past Lundqvist on the glove side before he could react.

The puck bounced in and out and stopped at Lundqvist’s feet. He kicked it away in disgust, returned to the net and cocked his head, waiting for the Lightning to finish celebrating.

Afterward, Lundqvist paused and deeply exhaled several times as he spoke to reporters. He had turned 33 in March. He kept referring to how much work this had taken, how small the margin had been in a physical game like this, how painful it felt.

“We were right there,” Lundqvist said, adding, “We were so close.”

The Rangers had silenced Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round. They had withstood Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and the Washington Capitals in the second round. But they ultimately could not fend off the wave of Lightning scorers — not even Lundqvist.

Correction:June 4, 2015

An article in some editions on Saturday about the Rangers’ 2-0 loss in Game 7 of the N.H.L.’s Eastern Conference finals against the Tampa Bay Lightning misidentified, in some copies, the team against which Rangers forward Mats Zuccarello is suspected to have sustained a head injury. It was the Pittsburgh Penguins, not the Washington Capitals.